You have received your first commercial deal! If you are like most of the brokers I’ve counseled lately your story is probably similar to the one below:

What does the average “money broker” ( I prefer to use the term capital consultant) do? First, the want to know the loan amount and then they quickly tack on 1-5 points (they assure me they are never greedy) and then they take an executive summary and shoot it around the internet asking lenders if they can close this loan in 14-21 days!

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

These brokers are not taking the correct actions. They are simply planning to fail. Why? They are ignoring the proven strategies used by seasoned commercial brokers.

Want to know the “Secret”?

Before you submit any loan proposal to any lender, you must find out:

The number of deals that lender has closed in the past, and how many they intend to close in the current year.

This is critical to your success! And how do you find out? ASK! Ask the lender by phone or email if they are looking for this type of loan and at the amount your borrower requires. If it is a medical office building ask them how many of these have they closed? And how many do they intend to close this year?

You want to hear: “Oh, we did many of these loans last year and we intend to do many this year!” Don’t send your prime office building to a lender that’s seeking to fund retail centers!

Find lenders and develop a personal relationship with them. Find out what their sweet spot is. In summary, Never submit a loan deal to any lender unless you are able to verify that the lender has closed many of the specific types of deals that your are seeking funding for and that they are currently actively lending.

Seasoned commercial brokers have honed their lender relationships over the years. You can begin this week by contacting at least one lender and interviewing them. At the end of one year you could easily have 52 lenders that you’ve developed a file on and what their lending parameters and preferred property types are.

One of the things that can really catapult your success investing in apartments and commercial real estate is working with the right commercial broker. Finding a great deal is really all about the numbers, and getting more deals across your desk. Working with the right commercial broker will not only save you time, but make you a lot of money by getting opportunities in front of you.

So the question is, “How do you find the right commercial broker?”

I will “bottom line” this for you and make it easy. Make sure you find a broker that does nothing but investment real estate and specializes in it. DO NOT use a broker that is a “jack of all trades,” meaning going from an open house on a Sunday to chatting with you about the 320 unit property on Monday.

You want someone that does nothing but spends time in the investment real estate world.

Why?

The specialized knowledge that a commercial broker has will be able to get you more GOOD opportunities to look at and because they know the market will be able to identify properties that can be very profitable. A good broker can also assist you in developing ways to purchase the property where you are making money at the closing table too. Plus they will help you avoid some of the common investment mistakes, as well.

This, more than any other of my “rules” is violated, and the investors that do violate this many times pay for it too. Make sure that you are not one of them.

Commercial mortgage brokers are constantly asking themselves if they should ask their clients for an exclusive relationship or go the “easier route” and secure a non exclusive fee agreement. What’s the difference? What’s the pros and con’s of both? That’s the point of this brief article.

An exclusive relationship within the commercial mortgage field can be thought of as a listing agreement within the real estate brokerage side of the business. Or more specifically the exclusive agreement should be thought of as a tenant representation agreement for those that are familiar with that agreement.

Essentially the exclusive agreement states that the borrower agrees to work with the mortgage broker on an exclusive basis with shopping for lenders, negotiating term sheets and coordinating the processing and closing of the loan (among other legal issues I’m not qualified to discuss). The commercial mortgage broker is handling the whole transaction on behalf of the borrower and typically is looking out for the borrower interests. A non exclusive agreement still covers a lot of the same issues but gives the borrower the right to work with other lenders/ brokers. So there’s no guarantee that you’ll win the deal and or get paid.

The main advantage for the commercial mortgage broker to get an exclusive is that the borrower has committed to working with the broker, and at the end of the deal the broker will get paid. For those reading this article that have worked on deals for months with borrowers and to find out they lost it because of 10 basis points or slightly lower fees know how bad this can sting.

Most exclusive fee agreements cover a lot more than the exclusivity issue; retainers, expenses covered, minimum fees are some of the more important issues. For example having a borrower send you a thousand dollar retainer and a signed exclusive agreement says a lot; that he’s on board and going to work with you.

There are disadvantages though of going for an exclusive agreement. The obvious is that many borrowers simply will not want to sign off on this. It can be a hard sell. They’ll want you to “get them quotes” or “see what you can offer” first. Basically the borrower will want to keep total control and will only want to work with you if you can produce the best deal. So you stand to lose working on the deal if they don’t agree. You may know that perfect bank for the deal and or just want to work on it with the hopes of building a solid relationship along the way.

Also, YOU may not want to work on the deal on an exclusive basis. Believe me when I tell you that if your borrower agrees to a 5 page agreement and sends you a $1000 retainer, that they will want to get their money’s worth and are not going away. If they deal is weak and you find you can’t get it done, you’ll have to invest a lot more time into the deal than wanted and or break off the relationship and risk tarnishing your reputation.

So, unfortunately there’s no simple answer if you should go for an exclusive commercial mortgage broker fee agreement or not. But you should get you borrower to sign something that says you’re working with him and that you’ll get paid at close.